News Sony To Reenter PDA Market With Pocket PC?

It's not been that long since Sony said they where pulling out of the PDA market, but now there are rumours that they may be planning a come back. This from Gigaom via Gizmodo:

Could it be true? A Clie powered by Microsoft's Pocket PC sometime in the near future? It is popularly held belief that Sony scrapped its Clie plans for US because of the slowdown in the PDA market. But those familiar with the company say it was because Sony was worried about the direction Palm was taking with its products. They were worried about Pocket PC and its traction in the PDA business, while Symbian OS grew more popular with the smartphone set. It was a decision which was met with a lot of disappointment from Clie fans, because most believe that Sony was really pushing the multimedia-edge on the Palm platform. While Sony sells Clie in Japan, it is not a big thrust anywhere else. But does that mean Sony is done with handhelds? Not entirely. Company executives have been recently heard contemplating return to the business using either Pocket PC or Symbian OS. Given the multimedia features of Pocket PC, as shown by some of the PDAs from HP, it would not be a surprise if you see a Clie with Pocket PC. "We're watching closely to see how PocketPC develops, and also how the Symbian world unfolds," a Sony exec was recently overheard as saying.

That's the full entry, but here's a link. And there's the usual Gizmodo spin on the story here